PHILADELPHIA  – The Lafayette baseball team claimed its second Liberty Bell Classic Championship in as many years, powered by a five-run eighth inning to defeat Delaware 7-5 at Citizens Bank Park.
 
The Leopards (14-24, 8-9 PL) jumped out to an early lead when freshman Dylan Minghini had a two-out base hit to score junior Trey Durrah.
 
That 1-0 lead would hold until the sixth inning when Delaware (14-26, 6-9 CAA) scraped a run across, but that tie would not last long when senior Richard Villa doubled home sophomore Ethan Stern to regain the lead.
 
Stern was 3-for-4 in the championship with an RBI and two runs scored and freshman Kyle Subers went 2.0 innings on the mound with three strikeouts.
 
The Blue Hens made their charge in the latter innings, tying the game in the eighth inning, but freshman Justin Johnson made a heads up play, knocking the ball down and gunning the go-ahead run down at the plate to escape the jam.
 
The Leopards went to work in the bottom half, putting up a five-spot that was highlighted by senior Dan Leckie's two-run big fly to left to grab a 7-2 lead going into the ninth.
 
Delaware pushed across three in the ninth, but freshman Frank Craska would work out of trouble to earn his first career win.
 
Senior Spencer Rouse extended his on-base streak to 22 games with a walk in the Leopards' big eighth inning.
 
This is Lafayette's fourth Liberty Bell Classic Championship and the second time it repeated as champions, also doing so in 2007-08.
 
The Leopards play their fifth game in four days, travelling across the commonwealth to Penn State for a 6:30 p.m. first pitch on Wednesday night.
 
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